Hiding in Lunnock Cave, Mull of Galloway

Once we had made sure that Phil and David were safely round the Mull of Galloway, Tony and I thought we had better hide in Lunnock Cave for a bit, till they cooled off!

David had done incredibly well, given it had been his work Christmas Party the night before and he had not got home till 330am. Phil had done the gentlemanly thing and driven him down to the Mull. We had told David and Phil that it might get a wee bit bumpy at the point, but David wasn't really listening, as he was trying to tune his radio into Radio 2. Apparently, he did not hear me shouting to keep close into the rocks and Phil thought the waves at the rocks were clapotis to keep well clear of. So David and Phil spent a little longer in the race than might be prudent.

The first few waves broke right over him and David said later that he never wished to wake up from a hangover that way again! The third wave imploded his spray deck and filled his cockpit with water but full of stoic, he paddled on till eventually, he and Phil broke out of the race.

This was all incredibly entertaining for the rest of us. Jim rafted up to pump David's boat out, as he regained his composure and Tony and I thought we had better retreat to the cave, where our laughter might be more discrete.


Jennifer soon found our hidey hole...


...as the race roared by at 7 knots.

Sea kayaking the Mull of Galloway

This map shows the Mull of Galloway tide race on the ebb. The race catches a number of kayakers out because the published information is not accurate, close inshore where kayakers will be. The tidal diamond on the chart is 3km SSE of the Mull and shows the west ebb flow starting at +0020 HW Dover at a spring rate of 4 knots.

The Cooper Reid book, Scottish Sea Kayaking says the WSW stream starts about 1 hour after HW Liverpool ( +0115 HW Dover). I know at least two kayakerswho have been caught out by this information. Rab says "This was certainly the biggest unplanned tide race that I had been in!" The ebb SSW flow close inshore at the Mull, where kayakers will be, starts at -0130 HW Dover, 2 hours and 30 minutes BEFORE the time in Cooper and Reid's book ( I have been in touch with both Doug Cooper and Franco of Pesda press and this will be corrected in the next edition.)

On Sunday I was keen to gather information for my forthcoming South West Scotland Pesda book and I was keen to experience the race first hand, at full belt. On Sunday it was 3 days before springs and HW Dover was at 0828, so the ebb started at -0130 HW Dover i.e. 0658. We timed our arrival at the Mull for 0958 to experience the full benefit of the flow.

This map above shows the ebb flow. From East Tarbert an eddy carries you with increasing velocity (12 km/hr) right into the heart of the race and the junction is quite confused with random pyramids of water. There are no nice surfable standing waves here. The main race comes right into the base of the rocks, there is no inside passage. You are now travelling at 14km/hr and ideally will now want to try and break out into the flatter eddy which is just round the corner, however it will be trying to push you back into the main race and the eddy line is quite challenging. With the greatest respect to Mr Gordon Brown's recent DVD, I employed none of the graceful strokes and edging he displayed when crossing eddy lines. Basically I PLFed with a liberal application of low braces. If you break out of the race as soon as possible, you will only be in it for 150m.In the top 3 photos in my post above, David and Phil are enjoying themselves far out in the race. They didn't want to get too close to the rocks because they thought it was clapotis. They PLFed a lot more than Tony, Jim, Jennifer and myself did. In the pub afterwards David refused to take his new Palm salopettes off!


Jim is sitting in the eddy looking back at the race we just paddled through...


...note the randomness of the water.


Tony attempted to paddle up the race by surfing on the waves but they were too irregular.


We were lucky there was just a light force 3 wind.


We have paddled the Mull of Galloway a few times recently, you have to treat it with respect. A mistake here and you will be carried far out into the North Channel. Midway between neaps and springs we found the flow to be 14km/hr which suggests a spring rate of about 19km/hr which is faster than the Corryvreckan.

We had a great time but if you are looking for a mellow trip from east to west, I suggest arriving at the Mull at -0130 Dover!

Sunny skies and calm seas

Earlier today...


...we decided to do ...


...a little light sea kayaking.


The staff of seakayak photo.com are renowned for their ability to seek out ...


...sunny skies and calm seas.

Where did that come from?

There we were, enjoying our sandwiches, when all of a sudden dark lines appeared out to sea.


Then Whumff.... surf crashed onto the beach.


There was a scramble for the boats (well those that were able) and Billy was first to wet his bows in the small but perfectly formed surf.

A Convivial Croy luncheon

We landed on Croy Bay, below its eponymous Electric Brae.


We enjoyed an uninterupted view to distant Ailsa Craig.


Before tucking into...


... a convivial luncheon with friends.


The distant hills of Holy Island and Arran seemed very close in the calm conditions as we recounted previous crossings to the islands, each stormier than the last!.

A missing monkey, a castle and an electric brae!

After crossing Maidenhead Bay we left Ailsa Craig astern and slipped through a gap into the lagoon behind Glasson Rock.


We found ourselves in the shelter of a delightful cove. The sands of Carrick shore lie at the foot of wooded Barwin Hill. A path at the back of the beach leads up to a pagoda in the woods. This was built in 1860 as a summerhouse by the Kennedy family of nearby Culzean castle. It is one of only three pagogas in Britain and is the only one built of stone. Its lower level hosed an aviary but a monkey was also kept here and Ayrshire folk still know it as the "monkey house". I worked at Culzean as a seasonal ranger/naturalist in the 1970's but by then it had become a ruin. It was expertly restored in 1998, though the National Trust for Scotland has drawn the line at reinstating a live monkey!


Leaving Carrick, we paddled on under the walls of Culzean Castle.


Children on the parapets pointed and waved excitedly at us, though I doubt we made up for the missing monkey!


After clearing the headland of Culzean, we were faced by another broad expanse of water, this time it was Culzean Bay. On the hillside above Phil's head can be found Croy Brae. This is an Electric Brae and if you are silly enough to listen to your kids and switch your car engine off when going downhill, powerful magnets in the earth will haul your car to a stop and another car load of kids will smack into the back of you. Highly entertaining stuff and all in all, South Ayrshire makes a great day out!

A sunny and calm Maidens morning, before the storm.

Back at the beginning of November we had a couple of sunny days before the wettest November on record in SW Scotland and NW England.


We set off from Maidens in Ayrshire. To the south, the distinctive outlines of Turnberry lighthouse and Ailsa Craig characterise this part of the Firth of Clyde.


To the west the equally distinctive outline of the magical island of Arran floated dreamily on the other side of the Firth.


It was calling strongly to us... but a crossing to it would need to wait for another day.


Instead we were bound to the north, along the rocky fastnesses of Culzean and Carrick to the little fishing hamlet of Dunure. There we would meet David in the pub!